Users of the social network in France can be found by their telephone number and Facebook even communicates their photo.
This is yet another problem caused by Facebook. The social network leaks every day the name, first name and photo of the owners of millions of cell phone numbers in France. How ? It’s very simple: because of its faulty password recovery process.
Try the experience for yourselves. Use a computer with your Internet browser. Go to Facebook and log out of your account. Then, still in the browser, go to the account recovery page. Indicate the telephone number you wish to identify and validate. If the owner of the number is registered on the social network with an account associated with this number, his name or nickname will be displayed. And as a bonus, you will even see his photo.
Where does the problem come from ? The telephone number is frequently requested (and even required to use messaging) when registering on Facebook. If the owner of a telephone number has an account on the social network, you have a good chance of finding him by his number and therefore identifying him. This is a major problem with social media and their endless appetite for our personal data.
How to avoid the problem? The simplest thing is not to give our cell phone number to Facebook. But this is not always possible because social networks have started to require a telephone number for everyone who registers there. One of the solutions is not to indicate your real name to the social network and not to post a photo allowing you to be recognized.
But be aware that putting a false name on Facebook is against its rules and can result in account deletion. Likewise, if one day you lose access to your account, Facebook will ask you for identification whose name must match the name you indicated when registering. If the names are different, you will not be able to regain access to your account.
French Internet users who wish to maintain their privacy are therefore faced with a complicated choice when they register on Facebook. Either they indicate their real coordinates and these can go into the wild. Either they provide invented contact details at the risk of losing their account. There is finally one last possibility that some Internet users no longer hesitate to do: not create an account on social networks and just use the chat applications on their phone which offer more and more possibilities!